


To Summon a Hero

by Pavielpetrovich



Category: Quest for Glory
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28838526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pavielpetrovich/pseuds/Pavielpetrovich
Summary: After the Dark Master attempts to summon a hero to Mordavia, a discussion with an apprentice ensues.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	To Summon a Hero

To Summon a Hero

A Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness fanfic

Two dark figures stood before the blood-red circle on the floor of the ritual chamber, their eyes trailing between the flickering candles placed at six points around its circumference and the emptiness within.

One of the figures wore a dark hood that hid most of her face in the shadows, as was her habit when speaking to mortal men. In the half-light, one could only see her chin and her rust-colored lips, curled now into a frown.

The other figure, too, was frowning as he stared at the ritual circle; the dim light barely illuminated his short beard and mustache, and the red turban wrapped around his head. Nonetheless, she could see much more of the frustration on his face than he could see on hers.

The Dark Master was certain that the spell had worked perfectly. Every step was taken properly, and the young man they intended to summon to this circle was still alive and well... somewhere.

“What is it?” barked the man suddenly. “Where is he?”

“He should be here,” answered the woman. “If he isn't... I will scry for him again.” She walked over to a table with a glass sphere in the middle and uttered the incantation to scry for the... hero... who had sent her former apprentice back to her.

She saw the image of a handsome young man in the crystal ball, struggling against a spell of dark magic that bound him, but she could not make out his surroundings.

Her former apprentice (now her apprentice again after what the so-called Hero of Shapeir had done to him) gazed into the orb from the opposite side of the table.

“That is him,” the apprentice confirmed. “But he isn't in Tarna, and he isn't here; where is he?”

“The barrier between the worlds was just beginning to mend when I conjured that spell,” explained the Dark Master, “but there were still traces of demonic magic there. If my spell reacted to the magic of the demons... if it drew him into the demons' world...”

“The barrier between the worlds is weak here too,” the man replied. “Our spell to summon him could just as easily have been deflected by the Dark One, especially at night when the Dark One's power is strongest.”

“What shall we do, then?” the woman asked. “If it was the Dark One that countered my spell, then this 'hero' is most likely trapped in the Dark One's Cave. Only one person has ever entered the Dark One's Cave and lived to tell about it: The paladin Piotyr, many decades ago, before that cave was sealed shut.”

“He did escape the Tomb of Iblis. Even if he is now trapped in the Dark One's Cave, I'm certain he could escape it too," the apprentice replied. "Besides, are you not familiar with the Rituals of the Dark One? Do you not have the ritual to open the cave mouth? Or does it remain as it was, hidden beneath the Dark One's Sign in the stone archway just outside of the cave?”

She glared at him. It would not do for Katrina, the Dark Master, to let her apprentice Ad Avis know that she knew less about the seven Rituals of the Dark One than he. She had come here years ago searching for them... searching in vain... and now it was only because of Ad Avis that she knew the location of one.

“I will go there alone,” she insisted. “Stay here in the castle, and whatever happens, _do not harm him!_ ” she commanded.

Those last four words were laced with a spell of compulsion. Ad Avis was Katrina's apprentice... no, less than an apprentice now. The Hero of Shapeir had killed him, triggering the blood-pact that had bound the two of them together so long ago.

Her slave... Yes, that was a better word for what Ad Avis was to her now. He would obey her every command as long as she made no effort to harm him directly, even a command to stay his hand against the man who had killed him and sent him back into servitude to her.

He wouldn't like it, but he would obey anyway.

With that small comfort, that Dark Master took to the parapets of her castle, transformed into a bat, and flew south.

* * *

The Cave of the Dark One lay far to the south, near the swamp that now flooded the pass leading out of the valley of Mordavia. It was difficult to tell whether the entrance to the cave was lined with stalagmites below and stalactites above, or whether those were the teeth of some huge demonic beast. Whatever the case, they were so close together as to form an impenetrable barrier against entry or exit by any human.

Green ooze trickled out from between the stalagmites; over the decades it had built up into a rancid pool that flooded the surrounding area. Barely any rocks remained above the level of the ooze, forming a row of stepping stones between the cave entrance and an archway inscribed with arcane symbols representing each of the Rituals of the Dark One.

As Ad Avis had said, there was a ritual scroll hidden behind the sign of the six-legged squid at the bottom of the arch. It was all she could do to pry that scroll out from under the bronze symbol without touching that symbol; even the Dark Master dared not tamper with such chaotic power unnecessarily.

Katrina unrolled the scroll and saw that the words were barely intelligible, until she walked closer to the cave entrance. It wasn't until she was about six feet away from the tightly clenched teeth that she could read the entire scroll, and so she did...

As the Dark Master pronounced the final incantation, the roof of the cave rose up suddenly, separating the stalactites from the stalagmites and forming an opening just large enough for a man to pass through. She could see a pale green light inside the cave, steadily growing brighter as somebody was running towards the entrance from the inside.

Then the Dark Master remembered that the man she had attempted to summon was mortal, and would not take kindly to the presence of a vampire such as herself. She quickly conjured an illusion about herself to appear to him as a human peasant girl, and she waited near the archway.

The young man slipped through the mouth of the cave just as the ritual to keep it open was expiring; the huge teeth crashed together scant inches away from his back. He looked briefly at the stars in the night sky and extinguished his torch; then he jumped across the stepping stones between the cave mouth and the archway. As Katrina opened her Sight to him, she saw that he too was a practitioner of magic, though not nearly powerful enough to give her pause. He was almost on top of Katrina before he noticed her.

“What? Who are you? Where am I?” he asked, panicking.

“Ah, you are alive!” the Dark Master replied. “Only one person has ever walked away from there before!”

It appeared that despite his fear, he was taken in by her disguise, and so she decided to play the role of the peasant girl to the hilt.

“Who are you?” she asked. “How did you get here?” She knew how he had gotten to Mordavia in general, of course, having conjured the summoning spell herself; but she would have given her unlife to know how he had ended up inside the bowels of the Dark One instead of her ritual chamber. “There are so many questions I want to ask you, but I have to get home quickly.” That much, at least, was true; it was nearly dawn, and she would need the safety of her coffin very soon. “It is so dangerous out at night in Mordavia!” She saw no need to tell him that at least half of the danger at night in Mordavia was because of her.

“The town is due north of here,” she continued. “Be careful. There are many bad things wandering around. Good luck! Oh, by the way, don't use magic in town; the people there are very suspicious of magic users like us.”

The fear on the man's face gave way to confusion. The Dark Master was pleased that he did not see her as the vampire archmage that she was. As she started to turn around, she said one last thing. “My name is Katrina. I hope we meet again sometime. Farewell!”

She turned and walked away before her charm wore off. Within minutes she had teleported to her bedroom in the castle, opened her coffin, and settled into the sleep of death for the day, confident that the hero would find the safety of the town before she awoke.


End file.
